Tainan Young Birder Blog

  A juvenile Western Gull with something in its mouth ,possibly plastic      On our way back to Camas, WA, the second stop was in Newport, OR. We have been there once before, which we enjoyed tremendously. We went to many of the same birding spots as last time. We saw many birds, old ones and new ones alike. Brown Pelicans and juvenile Heermann's Gulls The first place we visited was Devil's Punchbowl. While we were on the trail that overlooked the punchbowl, we saw a Black Oystercatcher. I think it is prettiest among all the shorebirds; a perfect black body, an interesting red beak, and a pair of yellowish eyes. We were a bit surprised when we saw the tidepools. The part closer to us was clean, but the part closer to the sea was filthy with seaweed. There was so much seaweed on top, we couldn’t even see the tidepools. After taking some pictures of the limited tidepools, I cautiously strayed into seaweed territory, and joined Dad, who had already started scanning the rocks for

       Our stop in Arcada, CA, was a brief two days. But we still managed to squeeze in a couple of birding excursions, and the one to Arcada Marsh was by far the most memorable. Wilson's Warbler   That morning we got up early, full of ambition and excitement, and headed off to the marsh. The marsh was quite large, so we had plenty of foot trails to choose from. The path we decided on was the loop trail, which goes around the whole marsh. Our first stop was at a big body of water, where we saw a crown of Belted Kingfishers loudly chasing each other around. Dad noticed some things in the water which turned out to be river otters, occasionally seen in the area. They were simply adorable, diving into the water and emerging with a shrimp-like creature, happily munching on it.  American Bittern Besides  the cute mammals, we also saw plenty of birds, including Long-billed Dowitchers, whose whole underbody is rufous colored and has a long, straight bill. We continued into a meadow, wher

  The last place we visited in America before we left was Halden Farm, where our friend Ellen and her family live. We stayed there for four days, so we had plenty of time to bird, kayak, hike, and explore their huge property. Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk The best birding was at Semiahmoo Marina, Halden Farm, Mt. Baker, and Birch Bay. On August 8th, everyone went to Mt. Baker, one of the tallest mountains in Washington. Because of its latitude and altitude, Mt. Baker has snow on its peak year-round. The coolest thing by far was seeing glaciers for the first time, which was truly mind blowing. The glaciers seemed surreal, especially when observed with binoculars. They almost looked like something from a drawing. Besides the breathtaking scenery, we saw some birds, but not much because the altitude is a bit high for birds. There was a raptor that flew really close, which we thought at first was a juvenile Golden Eagle, but further inspection found it to be a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. Anot